The present invention relates to apparatus suitable for use with either square balers or round balers, said apparatus providing for the dispensing of a preservative or other substance, either in liquid or solid particulate form, onto a crop material being baled.
Round balers and square (i.e. rectangular) balers are well known in the art and are used to form bales from a variety of forage crops. The bales thus formed are frequently stored in the open and the larger balers form bales weighing 1000-2000 pounds which are frequently stored in the fields where they are formed.
Storage of bales in the open results in a certain amount of spoilage or wastage when the bales take on moisture and the crop material spoils. Also, when the crop material is baled at a time when it has too high a moisture content, subsequent exposure to air results in the growth of mold, mildew and fungus. In either case, the bales thus spoiled may cause harm to livestock if used as feed. Thus, spoilage has caused economic losses not only from the loss of the baled forage crop but also from the loss of livestock which are fed the spoiled crop material. Therefore, various efforts have been made to provide attachments to balers, or some other apparatus, for applying a preservative or other substance to the crop material either as it is being baled or after the bales have been formed.
Various mechanisms are disclosed in the prior art for dispensing a preservative or other substance onto, or into a bale of crop material. Korsgaard U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,178 discloses a bale handling apparatus for handling round bales after they are formed and having injectors for injecting a preservative such as ammonia into each bale as it is being handled by the apparatus.
Wolrab U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,205,514 and 4,327,537 disclose apparatus for dispensing a substance onto a crop material being baled by a round baler, the substance being in liquid form and sprayed onto the crop material for the purpose of sealing, adding nutrients or preventing spoilage.
Rabe et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,638 discloses an apparatus suitable for use with a round baler and capable of dispensing a liquid preservative onto the crop material. In this apparatus sensors sense the width of the mat of incoming crop material and control valves so that preservative is sprayed from nozzles only over the width of the mat.
Mellinger U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,267 and Staskal U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,855 each disclose an apparatus suitable for use on a round baler, for dispensing a dry particulate preservative onto a crop material as it is being baled.
The systems disclosed in the aforementioned patents apply the substance to the crop material at a fixed rate and thus in some cases apply too much of the substance and in other cases apply too little of the substance where the substance being applied is a preservative. The reason for this is that the rate at which a preservative should be applied is dependent upon the rate of crop flow through the baler (bulk rate of crop flow) and the moisture content of the crop material and the prior art does not take either of these factors into account.
The present invention provides apparatus for varying the rate at which a substance is dispensed onto a crop material, thereby overcoming the deficiencies of the prior art.